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What is the difference
between "self-publishing" and "vanity
publishing?"
What
is "print on demand," and is it a good
option for self-published authors?
What
does the word "trade" refer to...e.g.,
"trade publisher," "trade
paperback," etc.?
Publishing,
schmublishing!
The world of book publishing can be quite confusing,
even to seasoned authors. For that matter, the very
term "publishing" is ambiguous. According
to the 2003 edition of the Columbia Electronic
Encyclopedia, "The term publishing means, in the
broadest sense, making something publicly known.
Usually it refers to the issuing of printed
materials, such as books, magazines, periodicals, and
the like. There is, however, great latitude of
meaning, because publishing has never emerged, and
cannot emerge, as a profession completely separate
from printing on the one hand and the retailing of
printed matter on the other." We couldn't have
said it better ourselves. (By the way, the quotation
is from the article on book publishing on Answers.com.)
What makes it all even more
confusing is that, thanks to technology, publishing
is constantly changing (like just about everything
else in our world today). While this is by no means a
comprehensive publishing/self-publishing FAQ page
(there are plenty of those elsewhere on the Net), we
do hope it will clear up some confusion about basic
issues we, personally, have been asked about many
times. Check back frequently, because we'll be adding
more Q & A's to this page. And if you have a
question for us, please don't hesitate to write to us
at moonshad@swbell.net.
Q.
What is the difference between self-publishing and
vanity publishing?
A. That's a very good question. On
the surface they would seem to be interchangeable
terms because, let's face it, with both
self-publishing and traditional vanity publishing, you
are the one who pays to have your book published,
rather than having someone else pay you. This is why
some people still think of vanity publishing and
self-publishing as being one and the same, period. A
recent exposé feature in Houston's
"alternative" weekly, The
Houston Press, described a local
doctor's book as being "self-published," by
"a vanity press in Austin." We run across
that kind of stuff all the time. It's really quite
frustrating, especially since the very term
"vanity publishing" is derogatory. Many
people think that the terms
"self-publishing" and "independent
publishing" are merely attempts to put a
positive spin on a generally sleazy business.
We strongly disagree, and not
just because we are in the business of providing
services for self-published authors. We acknowledge
our bias, but the truth is that there are substantial
differences between traditional vanity publishing and
self-publishing.
First of all, though, at the
risk of stating the obvious, let's get one thing
straight: There is a degree of "vanity," or
ego, or whatever you want to call it, involved in any
self-publishing venture. If you think highly enough
of your book that you are willing to pay to get it
published, then of course ego and vanity play a part!
For that matter, there's ego involved in pitching
your work to an agent or publisher. If you don't
believe your work is good, you're not likely to spend
much time and energy promoting it. Of course, there's
not a thing wrong with a healthy dose of ego, as long
as you don't let it get in the way of your better
judgment.
That said, let's separate the
sheep from the goats (no offense intended to actual
goats) where self-publishing and vanity publishing
are concerned. Traditional vanity publishers are
always "looking for manuscripts by new
authors." In days of yore they mainly lurked on
the back pages of writers' magazines and other
periodicals, and now they've spread to the Net as
well. They promise to do everything for you —
including printing, binding and even marketing your
book. To the naive and uninformed, some of their
pitches can sound like a really good deal. The
problem is that most vanity presses charge high fees
while providing low-quality books. Their
"editing" is usually negligible, and the
"marketing" efforts are often nothing more
than a one-time listing in the company's catalog, or
a listing on their website (if that much). Truth is,
a vanity press will publish just about anything as
long as the author is willing to pay; the actual
merit of the work is rarely considered. Worse, the
author has little control over the process, and
virtually no chance of regaining the money paid to
the vanity press. Many vanity presses are out-and-out
scams.
It could be argued that, like
vanity presses, traditional publishers these days are
generally more concerned about making money than
about literary merit. As for editing...well, we've
all read bestselling books — particularly
fiction titles by perennially popular authors —
that apparently escaped the attentions of a competent
editor. It could also be argued that, as in vanity
publishing, the average author often has little
control over the process with a traditional
publisher, and that, for most authors, most
publishers' marketing and promotional efforts are
minimal. Countless authors have found out firsthand
that they are expected to do a lot of the marketing
and promo work themselves, and in most cases they
even have to pay many of their own travel expenses
for book tours and the like. So much for the red
carpet treatment...
All of these complaints about
traditional publishers are valid. Even so, having
someone else pay YOU for your book makes a difference
on many levels. Unlike vanity presses, traditional
publishers do take a commercial risk with an unknown
author, or virtually any author, by offering advances
and royalties, however modest. If nothing else, this
confers a degree of recognition and prestige not
present with vanity publishing. And traditional
publishers do take care of all of the administrative
details such as the ISBN, Library of Congress number,
etc. And they handle distribution and fulfillment
— getting the book in bookstores and other
retail outlets, on Amazon.com, etc. Although it is
true that vanity publishers also handle the ISBN
details, most book stores won't touch vanity press
titles, and most book reviewers shun them.
But back to the main point:
What, precisely, distinguishes self-publishing from
mere vanity publishing? The most obvious answer is
that the author maintains all control, and therefore
has a much better chance of producing a quality
product. Of course, to produce a quality book the
author must first recognize the areas in which she or
he needs help, and must then hire competent
professionals to provide these services.
Self-publishing is not as "easy" as vanity
publishing because it takes more honesty and more
initiative, but it is the best and perhaps the only
way to guarantee that the finished product will be
exactly the book you envisioned.
What self-publishers do, in a
nutshell, is write, edit, market and promote their
books themselves — or they hire someone else to
do any or all of these functions on their behalf
— relying on a printer only for actual printing
and binding. Self-publishers also purchase their own
ISBNs, register with the Copyright Office / Library
of Congress if they so choose, and handle their own
distribution and fulfillment. The good news is that
many bookstores, even big chains, are willing to
accept self-published titles if the author goes
through accepted distribution channels. (Alas, many
book reviewers are still a little snooty about
self-published titles, but they're coming around.)
By the way, many
self-publishers eschew bookstores altogether and just
sell directly to the public. That way, they get to
keep much more of the profits. We're not recommending
that you rule out bookstores altogether, but they are
not necessarily essential to your book's success.
In recent years, an abundance
of companies have sprung up offering services to act
as a sort of agent between the writer and a small
printing operation. Some of these firms offer varying
degrees of editorial and design expertise, and some
offer print-on-demand services (see below). In these
cases, the distinction between self-publishing and
vanity publishing is less obvious.
Bottom line: If you're going
to be investing your money to get published anyway,
invest it wisely and get a quality product. The path
of least resistance isn't necessarily the best course
for your book.
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Q.
Where does print on demand (POD) fit into the
picture, and is POD a good option for self-published
authors?
A. Print on demand, aka POD, is a
publishing business model whereby a copy of your book
is not printed until after an order is received. The
obvious advantage is that you don't have to pay for
printing or storing large quantities of the book that
may never sell. The technical set-up is generally
quicker and less expensive than for traditional
printing, and there's virtually no waste from unsold
products. Furthermore, POD companies are a little
more forthright than vanity presses about their
definition of "publishing," at least to the
point that they don't attempt to masquerade as
traditional publishers, the way many of the vanity
presses have so often done. Instead they market
themselves as an alternative to traditional
publishing, while taking pains to distinguish
themselves from vanity publishing. (Just to muddy the
waters a bit, though, some vanity presses now offer
POD services. And some POD companies actually pay
search engines such as Google for top placement under
"vanity publishing." Go figure.)
Though POD has its advantages,
there are also several disadvantages, one of them
being that quality control is often less than
rigorous. Part of the problem lies in the technology.
Even some of the sales reps we've talked to at the
POD companies have admitted that their equipment
still cannot quite match the quality of traditional
offset printing. This may not matter too much to you
if you have straight text, few graphics and no photos
in your book. But if you want impeccable quality, POD
may not meet your needs.
Then there is the matter of
originality of design. Since many POD companies
create book cover designs and page layouts from a
rather limited range of templates, all of their
products end up looking more or less alike, unless
you bring in your own designers. However, doing that
can muck up their system a bit, as we learned not too
long ago (see our story below). Plus – and this
is very important – most POD companies retain
all the rights to any cover and interior design that
they create. So let's say that, working closely with
you over a period of weeks or months, the POD
company's artists and layout people create a cover
and interior that you really love. Later you decide
you want to republish the book under your own
imprint, using a traditional book manufacturer for
printing. Well, don't expect the POD company to hand
over the files, because more than likely, they own
them, and you signed away any rights to them in your
contract. Sure, you have the rights to the content of
your book (maybe), but you're going to have to go
back to square one with design and layout. (You'll
also have to get your own ISBN, because POD companies
generally assign their ISBNs to all titles.)
In addition, the per-book
price is usually fixed, so you generally don't get a
quantity discount. You'll certainly pay more up front
to get 1,000 or 5,000 books offset-printed than you
would pay a POD company for setup, and there's always
the risk that you'll have boxes of unsold books in
your garage. But remember, selling books is largely your
responsibility (even if you're picked up by a trade
publisher!). Certainly you will have to make an
effort to promote your work whether you go for POD or
offset printing. If your book sells well, you'll save
much more in printing costs than you would using POD,
as most book manufacturers offer attractive quantity
discounts.
Okay, so what about profits?
These vary, depending on where and how you sell your
book. According to Wikipedia, "Highest profits
are usually generated from sales direct from the
print-on-demand service's website or by buying copies
from the service at a discount, as the publisher, and
then selling them yourself. Lowest commission usually
come from sales from 'bricks and mortar' bookshops,
with on-line bookstores falling somewhere in
between." Unfortunately, it's still pretty
difficult to get a POD book into most bookstores.
This could change next week. Some POD companies are
partnering with bookstore chains, and for that
matter, some large publishers have developed or are
developing POD subsidiaries. Talk about confusing...
As we said, the face of book publishing is constantly
changing.
We will not presume to tell
you what is best for you, but we can report our own
limited experiences with POD. We have had several
clients who published books with one of the most
popular and successful POD services, and have had
mixed reports at best. One client whose book we
edited got impatient with the process of getting a
traditional publisher interested in his work, and
decided it would be quicker to self-publish. He chose
the aforementioned POD company, who would have done
all of the book design as well as the printing for
him. However, he liked working with us so much that
he wanted us to do his cover design. In the past, POD
companies generally did not work with outside
designers (we had checked on several occasions)
— but things had changed in recent years, and
this one was willing to work with us.
We create our book covers in
CorelDRAW, and there are still a few printers who do
not work with CorelDRAW files. We wanted to make sure
this company did, so our client got us in touch with
his customer service rep, who checked with the
technical / design people, who assured us that they
could handle the native Corel application. They sent
us all of the specs and technical information we
needed, and we designed the cover. We did have a
little trouble getting the spine width from them due
to numerous delays with the interior layout, which
they were handling. Finally, however, that was done,
we got the spine width, finalized the cover and sent
the file...only to be informed that, sorry, they
could not work with Corel files. They requested that
we convert the file to a jpeg in two parts, front and
back cover, and send that to them. They would create
the spine themselves (apparently there was still some
confusion after all about the exact spine width).
We were appalled. A jpeg is a
low-resolution bitmap suitable for online viewing but
not for print. After several confusing back-and-forth
communications, during which they were a little
condescending to us (although to their credit they
did later apologize for that), we got the problem
straightened out and sent the file to them in a
format they could use that was
suitable for printing. Had they communicated properly
to us in the first place, the problem could have been
avoided. But this was far from the only problem. The
client was having numerous other issues with them and
was profoundly frustrated with the entire experience.
He called it a "nightmare."
On the other hand, we recently
heard from someone else who had a positive,
"very enjoyable" experience with this same
company. We have not seen his book and do not know
what sort of quality he got from the POD company, but
he was happy, and certainly
that is important. Not every POD experience is a
nightmare, of course, and POD is a workable
alternative for many self-published authors,
particularly if their book has a very limited market
(e.g., family histories, company histories, etc.).
And do note that all of our experiences with POD
companies are through our clients, mostly from the
perspective of technical and quality control issues
rather than marketing and selling. Even so, we urge
you to be cautious when considering a POD company.
(See the link to Moira Allen's FAQ page, below.)
Technology is constantly
changing, and POD companies, at least the smart ones,
are continually working to improve their customer
service. As of now, they have a way to go. Rest
assured, however, that we are keeping up with the
technology, and if and when we feel a client would be
best served by going the POD route we will not
hesitate to recommend and steer them in that
direction.
For more about the advantages
and disadvantages of POD and other publishing
technologies, do check out Moira Allen's wonderfully
informative web site, Writing-World.com, particularly
this link: http://www.writing-world.com/publish/FAQ.shtml.
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Q.
I keep hearing the word "trade" thrown
around, e.g., "trade publisher,"
"trade paperback," etc. What exactly do
these terms mean?
A. Believe it
or not, this is one of the most common questions we
are asked. The word "trade" is easily as
ambiguous as the word "publish," but in the
context in which we generally use it in our business,
"trade" has two different and distinct
meanings:
A trade publisher generally
refers to a traditional royalty-based publisher who
issues books for the general readership (trade), as
opposed to publishing textbooks, industry-specific
technical reference works, etc. Random House and
HarperCollins are examples of trade publishers. There
are many more, but not nearly as many as there used
to be, as so many publishing houses have merged or
been swallowed up by larger corporations.
A trade paperback, on the
other hand, is an
"oversize" paperback — oversize, that
is, in relation to "mass market"
(pocket-book sized) paperbacks. In the US, mass
market paperbacks are generally 4.125 inches x 6.75
inches, whereas the most common sizes for trade
paperbacks are 5.5 in. x 8.5 in. or 6 in. x 9 in
— about the size of the average hardcover book.
Slightly smaller, more square formats have also
become more popular in recent years (for hardcover
books as well as paperbacks), particularly in the
inspirational, spiritual, motivational and gift
genres. Sometimes the trade paperback is the edition
between the first hardcover printing and the mass
market paperback edition. And sometimes publishers
issue a book simultaneously in hardcover and trade
paperback. (Many self-publishers do this as well.)
Often the trade paperback has the same cover design
on the front as the hardcover, but the price is
lower.
Trade paperbacks are sometimes
also called "quality paperbacks," because
traditionally publishers use better quality cover
stock and interior paper than they do for mass market
paperbacks. While that is still generally the case,
this too has changed in recent years as publishers
struggle to cut costs. Many are using lower quality
paper than they formerly would have. (Of course, this
is true of hardcover books as well.)
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